Hot Damn of the Week: Kona Brewing

In many ways, BC gets some of the best beer in the world. Our local brewers produce knockout Imperials, kickass IPAs, big-bosomed Belgians and stuff that can be described by no other adjective than baconjam.

But there's 24 hours in every day, and those Untappd badges ain't gonna earn themselves. Meaning being, sometimes you've got to drink outside the box, and when it comes to playing the field, our brothers to the South make the yardsticks by which our Canadian beers are measured by. Although generally we whip those Yankee bastards *cough-golden-goal-cough*.

However, as apparent from previous posts, I'm on holiday in the US and A, and that means I'm very excite to have access to beers that I won't be able to get at home. Sometimes those beers are Pabst Blue Ribbon, and I could give a fu- I could care less. But sometimes those beers are from the premier brewery on the Hawaiian Islands.

While my pick for visiting haole remains Maui Brewing Company's Coconut Porter, if you're a beerthusiast the Island's pride and joy is the Kona Brewing Company. Think of it as the Granville Island Brewing Co. except with surfboards instead of craft pottery. Today we were lucky enough to visit a Hawaii Kai based branch brewpub.

With 14 beers in all, that's a lot of suds that don't drift over to our section of the Pacific. That might not be such a tragedy if it was just Longboard Lager that we were deprived of, but wouldn't you welcome a pint of Coco Loco, or Pipeline Porter? I know I would.

After the taster, I settled for a Cascadia Ale (the irony in flying all this way to drink beer hopped from home practically clangs) whereas Katie, the queen of beer mixology, decided on something dubbed an Almond Joy: Kona-coffee flavoured porter mixed with coconut-infused dark ale. Frankly, it's delicious.

What else was on tap? Three porters, a steam lager, a solar-produced golden ale, two wheat-beers, several mixed ales, and they'd just run out of an IPA.

You can get Longboard and Pipeline across the border in WA. Here's hoping somebody brings it northward of the 49th ASAP. As a side note, should you find yourself in Waikiki, make your way down to 4Kings Kitchen, and order yourself either the Loco or the Mochiko Chicken. It's worth the entire flight.